Everyday bureaucratic corruption is not the domain of oligarchs or powerful elites, but of informal exchanges between bureaucrats and ordinary citizens seeking to move paperwork, secure benefits, or avoid penalties. Despite extensive research on the economic, legal, and social consequences of corruption, this mundane form has rarely been treated as a political phenomenon.

Drawing on original, nationally representative surveys conducted in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and China, Bribes, People, and Politics analyzes how citizens’ encounters with corrupt bureaucratic practices influence popular political trust, perceptions of elite corruption, legal attitudes, voting behavior, and political activism. After each interaction with public bureaucracy, citizens subtly revise their views about what role people like themselves play within the political system. As a result, corrupt bureaucratic encounters can significantly shape popular attitudes and behavior toward the political order. By linking the microdynamics of bureaucratic encounters to macro-level questions of political legitimacy and regime durability, this book bridges the literature on corruption, political sociology, and comparative politics, offering a new framework for understanding the persistent phenomenon of public sector corruption in Eurasia.

William M. Reisinger is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Iowa.
Marina Zaloznaya is Associate Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University.